Utah Jazz: Bulls ponder life with Boozer

LONDON — If Derrick Rose had his druthers, two-time NBA All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer would be playing tonight in London for the Chicago Bulls — not the Jazz, the team that's employed and handsomely paid him each of the past five years.

But — much to Rose's admitted surprise — a rumored and oft-discussed trade that would have sent Boozer to the Bulls in July never did materialize.

Too bad for Chicago, Rose suggested after the Bulls practiced Monday and before the Jazz did the same in advance of today's NBA exhibition game at London's O2 Arena here.

"It would have been great," said Rose, the NBA's Rookie of the Year last season and point guard of one of the league's premier up-and-coming clubs. "Boozer, he's a great guy, a great veteran. He would have helped the team out a lot. So, if he would have come on to this team we would have liked him as a player.

"We need a big; he's big. He can pop-and-shoot," Rose added. "He's strong. A post-player too, so he's versatile, and that's what we need on this team."

For Boozer, the notion of a move to Chicago — or Miami, or any of the many other locales that the on-the-block forward was rumored to be headed to this past offseason — is yesterday's dream.

He suggested, too, that it's becoming today's nightmare.

"That's the summertime. Stuff happens like that in the summer," Boozer said from the O2 floor that Rose stood on just moments earlier.

"Everybody's moved forward; everybody's on the same team that they were on . . . And for me I'm happy to be a part of my team and am looking forward to getting going.

"At the time, there was a chance I might have gotten moved," he added, reiterating much of what was said when the Jazz opened training camp in Utah late last month. "But ... that's over, done with. I didn't get moved, nobody got traded, and I'm happy to be here."

Boozer refused to be drawn in Monday to the temptation of imagining what it would be like had the trade been made.

"Until you get moved, you're still on your team. So, I didn't get moved. I'm here with my team," he said. "This is my team — the Utah Jazz. And I look forward to getting going.